ODOE provided oversight over the safe decommissioning of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant on Highway 30 north of St. Helens, Oregon, and continues to monitor the facility today.
Thirty-four dry casks of spent nuclear fuel are stored on a concrete pad at the former Trojan nuclear power plant site. The spent fuel will remain there until the federal government establishes a national spent fuel repository or an interim consolidated storage facility.
Spent nuclear fuel poses a potential safety and security hazard, so ODOE helps mitigate the potential threat through preparedness.
ODOE participates in annual emergency notification/communication exercises from Portland General Electric. The exercises demonstrate how PGE and ODOE would respond to an emergency at the Trojan site.
History of Trojan
The Trojan Nuclear Power Plant was
Oregon’s only commercial nuclear power plant. In 1967, majority owner Portland
General Electric announced it was going to build the nuclear power plant at the
site of the former Trojan Powder Company, about 40 miles northwest of Portland
along the Columbia River in Columbia County.
Construction on the $450 million
plant began in July 1968, and PGE received a site certificate in July 1971 from
the state’s Nuclear and Thermal Energy Council, the predecessor to our Energy
Facility Siting Council.
Trojan began
generating commercial power on May 20, 1976, with a capacity of 1,130
megawatts. The plant was licensed to run for 30 years and was the
largest plant of its kind at the time.
From the
outset, the plant was plagued by design flaws and other problems that led to
temporary closures and expensive repairs.
In 1977, PGE discovered Trojan had been compromised during construction.
Walls in the control building were missing crucial reinforcing rods. The
control building housed the control room and the electrical equipment that
controlled the plant. Trojan was shut down for eight months to complete
upgrades that brought it into compliance with federal earthquake protection
standards.
Despite its challenges, Trojan received generally strong grades from the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In 1984, NRC ratings began to slip and the
plant received below average ratings. In 1989, PGE replaced its entire Trojan
management. By 1990 and 1992, Trojan again received strong ratings from the
NRC, though it did receive a $280,000 fine from the NRC for a problem with the
emergency core cooling system.
In 1991, during the plant’s annual refueling outage, electronic probes
in the plant’s steam generator tubes showed that cracks were developing faster
than expected. At the NRC’s direction, PGE launched a major steam generator
tube investigation and repair program that lasted for several months. In
February 1992, the NRC allowed PGE to reopen Trojan.
Much of this occurred in the midst of efforts by anti-nuclear groups to
close Trojan. Initiatives on the ballot in 1986 and 1990 that would effectively
close the plant were defeated. Two additional measures were on the ballot in
1992. In August of that year, PGE announced it would close Trojan prematurely
in 1996 rather than replace the steam generators. The 1992 ballot measures to
close Trojan were defeated by Oregon voters.
Just one week after the election, a leak developed in a steam generator
tube. It was a small leak and was only detectable using very sensitive
instruments that were installed just for that purpose. The leak was well within
the plant’s Safety Analysis, making it acceptable to continue plant operation.
PGE chose to shut the plant down so they could investigate. The plant never reopened.
On January 27, 1993 PGE notified the Oregon Department of Energy and the
NRC of its decision to permanently close Trojan. That began a decade-long
process to decommission the plant. The reactor vessel and steam generators were
shipped by barge up the Columbia River for burial at the US Ecology commercial
low-level waste site located at Hanford near Richland, Washington. The
containment building was demolished and the cooling tower imploded. Most of the
radioactive waste was hauled to the US Ecology site for burial.
In 2003, PGE transferred Trojan’s 791 spent nuclear fuel assemblies to
dry casks. The 34 dry casks are large concrete and steel canisters that sit
upright on a concrete pad within Trojan’s protected area, known as an ISFSI –
an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation.
This spent nuclear fuel will remain at the Trojan site until the federal
government has a central place to put nuclear and radioactive waste. The U.S.
Department of Energy has defaulted on agreements with nuclear utilities all
across the country to begin accepting spent fuel for disposal; they had
previously agreed to begin accepting the fuel in 1998. The intent was for it to
go to a national geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Because the
federal government has not been able to meet its requirements and open a
repository it was widely sued. As part of the settlements, it is reimbursing
PGE for the security costs and other costs associated with storing this fuel on
site.
Regulations require that
the site be cleaned to a level of residual radiation that is "as low as
reasonably achievable."
Trojan was built on an
industrial site, and is now safe again for any type of use, including
industrial, commercial, or even residential.
Following the 1979
accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, Oregon voters passed an
initiative in November 1980 that prohibits the licensing of a new nuclear power
plant unless it is approved by the voters – and only if there is a permanent
national repository for disposal of high-level waste in place.
Trojan Decommissioning Timeline
1993 |
Portland General Electric announces it will permanently close Trojan |
1995 |
Removal of large components (4 steam generators and the pressurizer). |
1996 |
Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSC) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval of the Decommissioning Plan. |
1999 |
Approval of planned "independent spent fuel storage installation." |
1999 |
One-piece removal of the reactor vessel and its internal components (a first in the nation). |
2000 |
ODOE and NRC review of the final survey plan. |
2001 |
Start of final survey. |
2003 |
All spent fuel transferred from the spent fuel pool to dry cask storage. |
2004 |
Portland General Electric completed the final survey and submitted all results to ODOE and NRC for review. |
2005 |
NRC and EFSC approval for releasing the site. |